A strange thing happened to the ‘weightless’ and dematerialised economy we thought the Internet would bring. It never arrived – or it hasn’t yet. Finding ways of reducing wasteful flows of energy and matter in our daily lives remains an enormous opportunity for design.
Hence lightness, the theme of Doors of Perception 6 on the theme of Lightness
Lightness will drive the way we design every product, service, and place in the coming years. We’ll need to re-think everything in terms of matter and energy performance – a profound transformation of design’s ‘operating system’ that will affect us all. In the language of open-source software, lightness will be a new ‘kernel’ for design. Doors 6 was about what that new kernel means for design. The conference tackled many nettlesome issues: the role of open-source and file-sharing software on design methodology, the need for more strategic alliances in order to withstand impending ecological doom, and ways to dismiss the clichés that reflexively associate ‘ecological’ with, as moderator John Thackara put it, ‘less stuff, less change, less fun.'”
Doors 6 was attended by 1300 people from 27 countries. They came to hear over 30 speakers from almost as many different fields of expertise. Our live webcast was watched by many thousands of people worldwide.
A large archive relating to the first eight Doors of Perception conferences is available here:
http://www.doorsofperception.com/
